Sport performance
Become faster and avoid hamstring injuries
by Uperform
Do you want to run faster or maybe just avoid hamstring injuries? What if we told you that both are possible?
Hamstring injuries are the main injuries that happen during a sprint. Unfortunately, there are more and more of them every year and this affects all athletes who are faced with high-speed linear races.
THE UGLY DUCKLING
Research on the prevention of hamstring injuries is not new and many strengthening protocols have already been proposed. Health professionals and physical trainers now include many quirky hamstring strengthening exercises. Athletes benefit from these programs by being stronger and more powerful, but unfortunately this does not yet reduce the frequency of occurrence of these injuries within the workforce.
Why can’t we manage to reduce this type of injury yet? Maybe we weren’t looking
still in the right place. Compared to other types of injuries such as fractures of
cruciate ligaments or pubalgia, the mechanism of occurrence of hamstring injuries has not
not been extensively explored.
THE KEYS TO THE PROBLEM
Anteversion of the pelvis – directly linked to the increase in lumbar lordosis (understand
arch of the lower back) – causes the hamstrings to be stretched and adds
additional and unnecessary strain on these muscles. In other words, the position of the pelvis
when running can increase the workload on the hamstrings and put them in a weak position.
Modern sprinting techniques are based on the work of the stride in the forward cycle (front-side
mechanism for our Anglo-Saxon colleagues). The concept behind this technique is to maximize the time the lower extremities (including knees and ankles) spend in front of the line of the trunk and decrease the time spent behind this line. In practice, this is observed by a straightened position of the trunk, a pelvis in a neutral position (some people sometimes speak of retroversion) and a maximum vertical position of the attack knee. This alignment allows greater rigidity as well as a shorter contact time with the ground, thus offering more power to the athlete.
IN PRACTICE
It is possible to alter the way an athlete runs – their movement biomechanics – with work on lumbo-pelvic control and sprint technique. By striving to achieve this forward cycle position, the tension applied to the hamstring muscles is reduced. At the same time, the performances of the athletes who followed these coaching sessions also improved.
Our team includes physiotherapists and sports coaches trained in the care of sprinters. We will work together to reduce the incidence of your injuries and improve your performance.
Working on prevention is part of our missions, our team of sports physiotherapists and sports coaches can help you.
We care, u perform
Bibliographie :
Mendiguchia J, Castano-Zambudio A, Jimenez-Reyes P, Morin J-B, Edouard P, Conceicao F, et al. Can we modify maximal speed running posture? Implications for performance and hamstring injuries management. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 2021 Jul.